Killer windows
About this resource
- Appropriate grades
- 5
- Subjects
- science (environmental science), thinking skills (information literacy)
- Provider
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
Legal
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In this Science Update, students explore how city lights can affect the migration patterns of birds. Doug Stotz, a conservation ecologist at Chicago’s Field Museum has been counting the birds that kill themselves by flying into the glass windows of a convention center. The researchers found that fewer birds were hitting the building when it was dark, thus encouraging cities to turn off their lights in the evening. There is speculation that the bright lights interfere with the navigation system of birds. Science NetLinks provides a link to the audio file, a written transcript, and questions to engage students in discussion about why birds might fly into buildings at night, what responsibility building managers have to nature, and how other structures might impact animals. This activity also contains links to Chicago’s “Bird’s Eye View of the Migratory Bird Route” and The Fatal Light Awareness Program.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
Science (2005)
Grade 5
- Goal 1: The learner will conduct investigations to build an understanding of the interdependence of plants and animals.
- Objective 1.01: Describe and compare several common ecosystems (communities of organisms and their interaction with the environment).
- Objective 1.04: Discuss and determine the role of light, temperature, and soil composition in an ecosystem's capacity to support life.
- Objective 1.05: Determine the interaction of organisms within an ecosystem.
- Objective 1.06: Explain and evaluate some ways that humans affect ecosystems.
- Habitat reduction due to development.
- Pollutants.
- Increased nutrients.
